Samsung Heavy Industries, a major shipbuilder here, said Monday that it has clinched a $240 million deal to build two shuttle oil tankers.

Under the deal with AET, an affiliate of Malaysian shipping firm MISC, Samsung Heavy will build the two vessels by January 2020, the company said in a regulatory filing.

A shuttle tanker is a ship designed to transport oil from an offshore oil field to a storage tank, and is equipped with a variety of offloading equipment.

With the latest deal, Samsung Heavy has secured deals valued at a total of $5.06 billion so far this year to build 15 ships. (Yonhap)